DD did. Food was dropped off and she hired 3 ladies to set up buffet, put out dessert, keep everything stocked and tidy,  pack up the leftovers, take out trash, etc. They charged $600 for 4 hours. 115 guests, $6000 spent total. There was no cocktail hour. Pictures were taken before ceremony,  buffet set up during ceremony so guests went straight to reception. We had chaffing dishes set up before everything started that we borrowed from friends. Drinks were cans and bottles (soda, tea, water, beer,  seltzer) iced in metal troughs. Buffet was self serve. 

our venue does not have a kitchen.

Think gourmet picnic.

Brunch food/ no kitchen = Room temp. quiche, platters of fruit, donuts/danish. Nesco rosters to keep sausage warm.

You can order drop catering from a restaurant, and then hire servers separately! My husband and I used GigSalad to find ours, but you could also try Thumbtack or similar websites.

I feel like drop catering from a fast casual place would be your best bet. I know where I live there’s a local biscuit place that can do that—biscuits and gravy, cheesy tot sides, bacon, donuts, etc. Then maybe add some extra from the store like fruit?

our venue also didn't have a kitchen and for various competing dietary and budgetary needs, none of the local caterers used to serving at that venue worked for us. instead, we got our food from a restaurant that doesn't do full service catering and hired a wedding coordinator whose team picked up the food and made sure it all got set out nicely and everything. it worked well!

I’d definitely check if restaurants you like offer catering trays! My friends did this at their wedding and setup a buffet using disposable chafing dishes. It was perfect!

Look at local restaurants. We’re picking up bbq from a local restaurant and using disposable chafing dishes for serving. Just make sure your venue is ok with it.

I’m doing bbq but I found a lot of Italian/pasta places that will cater and it’s pretty affordable

Trays from a local pizza place. Where I live a chicken franchise tray that serves 15 is $88. A full tray of pasta is about $50 and a full tray of salad is $50. You can do a nice buffet for about $600-700. And I live in a HCOL area

Also, this seems nuts but KFC has a catering menu 50 pieces of chicken plus 25 biscuits plus a large side for $160. If you take it out of the containers and put it in catering trays you could have an inexpensive chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits meal

1. Local barbecue places are always a good hit
2. If you don't mind a little preparation then costco/Sams Club is always good, especially their pizzas.
3. Chain restaurants like Panda, Olive Garden, Chilis, and others have good catering deals.
4. Local FB marketplace
5. Chinese or American buffets

The thing you gotta worry about is pickup/delivery, who will be serving, how will it be served, and the cleanup.

Fast casual places like Chipotle, Moes, Boston Market, Olive Garden, etc. have their catering act together. Pick up or delivery. You'll need staff to set out your food, keep it stocked, bus tables, and clean up. Find them via word-of-mouth, culinary programs, gig economy.

I would either do full catering or full drop catering. Don't make sides yourself - even if your venue allowed it, that's a lot of stress and work for your wedding to save not a ton of money. You're going to probably pay a couple of servers $25/hour each, potentially more if they need servsafe, which will very quickly eat into that budget. Plus they have to bus and pack dishes back up, so you're looking at least 4-5 hours.

Where are you located? Is there a school, either HS or Jr College nearby for culinary training? That might be a good labor resource. Would the instructor hire as the kitchen manager? They might even cook the sides for a reasonable price. I baked my own wedding cake and a family member with amateur cake decorating skills did a simple icing, then we decorated with fresh flowers.

Without knowing your location, $3750 for all food all-in is not that bad for 50 ppl.

The alternative you are describing with the servers and making sides yourself will likely cost you $2k-ish for an inferior experience. You have to look at the difference in the prices and see if all the extra work and coordination is worth it to you.

I would also check out some of the budget wedding subs. Again, idk your location but with a budget of $15k you’re going to be making some sacrifices. Good luck and congrats!

One of the issues with making your own food (if the venue allows it) is timing. If you’re doing a typical wedding timeline including hair and makeup service and photos before the ceremony, you’re going to be too busy to cook. You’ll have to make everything the day before and get someone to go heat things up while you’re running around, unless you just do cold sides like pasta salad. You’ll probably have to hire servers off TaskRabbit or ask local teenagers, so there’s some risk involved and it’s not guaranteed to be reliable.

Honestly $75 per person is a steal for a buffet and appetizers. I’m in a LCOL area and we paid about $120 per person. I would just do the buffet and save the headache if I were you.

It’s your wedding day. Do you really want to be in the kitchen on that day preparing sides? Truthfully I would maybe take a look and see where else you could make cuts at to have a proper meal if that’s important to you. I feel things get a bit messy when people attempt to make drastic cuts in the food area.

For my wedding we found someone who had a wholesale food (in the US its called Restaurant Depot) connect (generally someone who owns a restaurant) and used their membership to buy wholesale cheese for a giant cheese board we assembled ourselves. We also did pickles (that my mom made) and hummus with vegetables. Our wedding was 100 people so this was like a six person operation the day before the wedding. We also found a company called cater2me that is basically uber eats but for office catering. We shared our dietary restrictions and budget per guest and they were able to provide 2 restaurants and their pricing. It was shockingly affordable and they delivered it with chafing dishes. I’ve seen people successfully do self catering but mostly with cold foods that can be pre-made. Good luck!

Pasta. You can just order it in catered and fancy it up as you please or make it. I suggest a red sauce, Alfredo, meatballs or chicken, plus you can leave meat off for vegetarians. Toss in some warm bread and a simple salad- voila!

Maybe consider an Afternoon Tea style?

Afternoon Tea consists of:

• A savories tier, usually consisting of sandwiches or small bites like quiches

• A scones tier, often served with butter and jam or clotted cream

• A sweets tier of mini cakes, cookies, macarons, or tartlets

My suggestions:

• Many sandwiches and quiches can be either purchased ahead of time or made ahead of time. I know Costco has mini quiches and other small bites which might be appropriate.

• Macarons, petit-fours, and madeleines can be purchased ahead of time. Costco has macarons, madeleines, and foreign cookies.

• Scones can be made ahead of time.

Alternately:

• You could purchase a giant cut of meat from Costco and slow cook it, with a meat station.

• This can be combined with potatoes baked ahead of time and then heated up.

• Pair this with a fancy salad (green lettuce, arugula/rocket, some endive, maybe some fennel or kale, plus dried cranberries, and a crunchy element of fried onions, nuts, or pumpkin seeds, plus a vinaigrette dressing)

• Additional options: Fancy bread rolls (see if you can find brown bread), asparagus, brussel sprouts, or cheesy cauliflower, stuffed bell peppers, roasted tomatoes, etc.

I have been to several backyard wedding receptions, so fun!!!

This is the info:

DIY Pasta Bar:

Fettuccini & Penne Trays Alfredo & Marinara Trays Protein Trays: Grilled Chicken, Mini Meatballs, Sausage, Shrimp Vegetable Trays: Broccoli, Asparagus, Onion & Peppers Salad Tray Italian Bread w/Butter or Olive Oil

Greek style Bar:

Kebab Trays: Chicken, Beef, Vegetable Rice Grilled Vegetables Greek Salad Several Types of Hummus w/pita chips, vegetable crudité

BBQ Buffet Protein: Ribs, Chicken, Salmon, Pulled Brisket Vegetable Kebabs Potato Salad Macaroni Salad Green Salad Corn on the Cob Cornbread

Pizza Bar: (Note: They hired a Pizza Chef and he brought a mobile wood fired pizza truck)

They offered a variety of standard pizza’s and a vegan option

They also had garlic knots, salad, grilled veggies.

We did a brunch menu for our wedding. Breakfast food was half the cost of lunch/dinner with the caterers, and we had a mimosa bar with different flavors.

Brunch included: A fruit plate table, parfaits and yogurt, bacon bar with 5 flavors of bacon, made to order waffles, made to order omelets. 

After our ceremony, instead of a “cocktail hour” while the bridal party did photos we had a “coffee break” with coffee and donuts.

And while it was “cheap”, the presentation by our catering company was very elevated. I still get complements on our wedding menu nearly 10 years later.

If I were staffing this, it would be one cook and 3 servers. The cook is only warming and constructing salads. Then replenishing as needed.

If you’re having the buffet served, all three servers would be behind the buffet line until everyone gets through the line. After that, two of the servers go clear plates and one person stays at the buffet until everyone is done eating, then move to cleanup as well.

Is the bar separate from this? That is the only way you might need a 4th, to man the bar.

4 servers for A 50 person buffet isn’t the worst as you will need someone to replenish, Simeon picking up dishes and tending to your guest while eating and any other refills that may be needed.

The effect that using china has on your staffing needs from a truthful caterer:

> Do you plan to use disposable or china place settings? Biebel's is happy to offer buffets for parties using either disposable or china dinnerware items. However, even if you are not renting china through us, we need to know when booking if you plan to use china because staffing needs increase due to additional responsibilities and needs when servicing china. On average, we see weddings who choose to go with china service increase by $10-15 per person depending on the menu due to the additional staffing, china rental, & gratuity.

I'd use disposables/compostables for my tableware. These look good irl: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ecochoice-compostable-no-pfas-added-bamboo-bagasse-10-x-10-square-plate-pack/999SP10.html

3 salads and 3 mains buy no veggies? Unless they are cooking this from raw on site and have no kitchen for preparation, this is wild. You don't need any cooks honestly. It doesn't take 3 people to replenish.

They tell you what you need , you either agree or go somewhere else . This is how wedding disasters begin.  I’m sure you Will be complaining when tables are not bussed etc think about finding another company. 

We are doing the same thing and hiring wait staff to handle the entire buffet, including assigning 2 additional wait staff specifically for replenishing the buffet.

Your friend does raise a good point! Generally, events with more than 30 people require supervision of food beverage. This is ensures everyone gets a fair portion of food. You don’t want a guest that has a bigger appetite than others to unintentionally over serve themselves, causing someone else to not be able to get an appropriate amount of food. 

Try looking for 3 servers on thumbtack to man your buffet! Alternatively, see if you know any teens or college students that would want to make some pocket money. 

I hired someone for this. Our venue put us in touch with their regular cleaning staff and one of the ladies was happy for the few extra hours of work. We only had 20 people so one person was enough for keeping things stocked and then packing up at the end of the night

Your friends and family will thank you for hiring staff. Try word-of-mouth (the folks who do your community's fish fries and pancake breakfast?) or gig economy (Craigslist ad, task rabbit, etc.)

We’re doing drop off catering then using an event staff company for a kitchen person and 2 servers to manage the buffet, clear tables, etc

I wouldn’t do it just cause enjoying my wedding would be worth way more than just doing another job to save some money. I would also foresee my wife being pissed about focusing on the canapés rather than dancing with her or something lol.

I can’t imagine that being much fun. I mean designing the menu and bringing your staff in is one thing. But doing it yourself sounds crazy. I barely even managed to eat at my wedding lol

Yes and no.

We went the simple route of doing a BBQ in the woods. Didn't do a public ceremony. We did a whole pig, whole fish, corn on the cob, couple summer salads and veg dishes and provided tortillas and salsas for taco making.

It was a lot of fun, but people were crowding the grill areas, always talking to me and my wife. For dessert we did s'mores.

In all, it was a lot of fun and the food came out exactly how I wanted. But I spent all morning and 2 days prior prepping, had to rent a uhaul to get everything there, set up, etc. The worst part was clean up at the end of the day.

If I would change anything it would be getting someone to break down for me at the end of the day. And having someone whose main responsibility it was to help me during the event so I could walk away for more than 5 minutes.

Related, but not exactly - I ended up bartending my own wedding. Our bartender was only paid 4 hours and of course it went to like 10, so she bailed after 7 or so with a quite hefty tip on top of double what we'd agreed on.

It was fun for like.. ten minutes then I got a line of people and ended up killing an hour behind that bar while my wife jumped in to help. Fortunately another friend stepped in and finished the night for me. Still not sure if it's my kid or not.

I was professional enough to know it would be way too stressful.

I had enough going on that day the last thing I needed to worry about was all the details that go into catering (storage, transportation, venue kitchen amenities, timing, prep)

I also wanted my industry guests to relax and have a great time, not be on the clock working to make it happen, so I hired a catering company to take care of it instead of asking a friend.

We started out looking for traditional wedding caterers and were quoted 9k and higher for 60 guests (150 pp). We ended up contacting our favorite sit-down casual local restaurant and they quoted us about 2.5k for the same guest list. I think looking outside the box for your caterer could help lower the cost quite a bit and even end up being tastier and more liked by your guests anyway.

We had to reconsider what our priorities were and have a much smaller wedding than I would have originally preferred. Our catering bill for our 35 person wedding is about $2500.

I'll be honest, we managed to cater to around 130 people for about $12 a head. We used a well known fried chicken restaurant from our area that most people love, and it was a hit. Bonus was this restaurant is also known for their biscuits, so during cocktail hour while we took our photos, we set up a biscuit bar with honeys and jams that everyone absolutely raved over. It's nice to have a formal dinner, but going with a cheaper place that you know is a crowd pleaser is nice too! :)

Edited to add that in addition to the fried chicken and biscuits, guests were served mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, and salad. Seriously, don't hesitate to hit up local restaurants- you can get some good food at a great deal!

How do people do this? The answer is that most people don’t. Very few people get everything they want in their wedding. Everyone else cuts the guest list, they pick pick cheaper vendors, they have a less fancy event, they get married on a weekday, they save up for years and years, they go into massive debt, etc.

If you can’t afford to have a formal dinner for 200 people, then cut the guest list to 100, or have cake & punch instead of dinner. I understand that’s disappointing, but it is reality for the vast majority of couples.

My catering costs are $28k for 135 people. Just dinner. Appetizers and bar not included.

195 guests is a lot!! And catering is a huge expense per person, so even if you go with cheaper vendors, it’s simply expensive to feed that many people.

Rentals can be sneaky expensive, otherwise that sounds great!

Do you have a venue booked already? Not all will allow providing your own alcohol or now using their linens and such.